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Friday, September 02, 2016

Philip Murgor: Watch this space!

A digital essay by Onyango Oloo

I am among the almost half a
million people who follow Robert Alai on Twitter. So when I saw him announcing
that veteran lawyer, former senior prosecutor

Philip Murgor was running for President,
I sat up and took notice. I immediately contacted Philip to ask him if it was
true.

I have known

Philip Murgor for
over thirty years.

We both entered
University of Nairobi in 1981-he to the Faculty of Law while I was admitted to
the Faculty of Arts. In August 1982 we were among over sixty students who were
rounded up and hauled to kangaroo courts on trumped up charges in the aftermath
of the abortive coup. The university students- including people like MP Richard
Onyonka, the rugby stars Vitisia and Sagala, not forgetting then dreadlocked
thespian Kibisu Kabatesi-now a confidant to Musalia Mudavadi-spent over six
months in horrid and filthy conditions at the notorious overcrowded Nairobi
Industrial Remand Home. Ultimately, because of sustained international pressure
and a global human rights outcry they were released and many like Murgor,
resumed their undergraduate studies with Philip going on to get his top honours
law degree in 1985. A handful of others, like the late

Titus Adungosi, former ambassador
to the USA, Oginga Ogego the late

Jeff Mwangi Kwirikia (dad to popular Kenyan music artiste STL) and blogger/activist Onyango Oloo went to receive
stiff sentences which they served in full at the Kamiti and Naivasha Maximum
Security Prisons.

When I asked him over the phone to confirm what Robert Alai had tweeted,“Wait for
the official announcement David” was Philip’s response using the first name I
used to go by when I was younger.

His coy answer was poignant in that he did
not disavow his bid for the top elective office in the land- just that he would
tell us himself when he was good and ready.

Given his stellar marks in law
school, Philip Murgor could have easily gone into lucrative private practice
after his pupilage at the prestigious Hamilton, Harrison and Matthews firm.
Instead he opted to be a poorly paid state counsel in Kisumu- in effect,
bucking the elitist trend by choosing to be a public servant. Although he did
set up his company in partnership with his wife in 1992, a decade later, the
Mwai Kibaki appointed him the Deputy Public Prosecutor- without soliciting for
or applying for the job!

Unfortunately, his diligence and
no nonsense approach to fighting criminals was to prove his undoing. After two
years on the job- because he was determined to collar and incarcerate the
politically connected, deep pocketed thugs behind a high profile cocaine case,
powerful insiders in the Kibaki administration schemed, in much the same way
that saw the forced exit of anti-corruption czar John Githongo, Philip Murgor
was fired from his job. You can read more about the cocaine story by visiting this link , this other one and this one. You can also get a first hand account from thisDaily Nation interview he did in 2013.

The good thing about being
incorruptible is that you can walk openly in public with your head held high
because every night you go to bed with a clear conscience. Philip Murgor simply
went back to what he had been doing before- running a successful law firm and
raising a wonderful family.

People close to him intimate that
Philip is focused on slaying four dragons- the behemoth of corruption; the
monster of tribalism; the scourge of inequality and the contagion of impunity.